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- Jan 17, 2005
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10 years of FIF
Nostradamus
Most Passionate Member
Weak goalkeeping at the first goal when he sidestepped to the right just as leao pulled the trigger when he should finish shifting position and start little jump to stop the incoming shots. He did it at Firmino's goal last season and it happened again last night.
It's not weak goalkeeping lol. It's a decision and adjusting your position based on the potential outcome.
Leao is not left footed and he doesn't usually shoot first time with his left. When he does, it's usually a low strike. Handanovic was expecting him to either play a parallel pass to the striker or control the ball and fire in the close corner, which is more in line with what Leao does and generally what right footed players would have done. Leao obviously is capable of using his left and everyone knows that, but not that way.
If you check the goal, you'd see that Handanovic did the right thing closing on the near post because it was widely exposed. At the same time, Milan had two players that could have pounced at the far post with our defenders fixated on the ball rather than their opponents.
With Firmino it was a fluke strike with his neck, it couldn't have been anticipated as an attempt at goal from that angle and player movement.
Handanovic's could have stopped the 2nd goal but again, everyone froze and we had the worst defensive setup. It was like an offside trap at 2 meters away from our own goal...
Three players on Leao, a fourth watching closely.
I'd blame Skriniar there initially for doing absolutely nothing and not disturbing the potential path of the ball and De Vrij right after for not closing in early on Giroud. With so many bodies you should have anticipated that a low cross would have been the attempt.
By the time the ball reached Giroud, De Vrij was still trying to change his direction and he was further away from him. Too late.
The irony is that if it were a clean strike, Handanovic would have definitely stopped it. He only missed it because it wobbled a couple of times. That's usually the hardest type of shots to stop, ones where the ball hits the ground just before it reaches your span.